Online document services

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Technology is analogous to a coin: it has two faces to it. Every little technology has a major story to tell us about its advantages and disadvantages. Especially in this era of innovation, witnessing advancements in technology have become as common as witnessing the sun rise everyday morning. What was popular yesterday is obsolete today and what is popular today will be obsolete tomorrow.

Web-based applications

Web-based application is a technology that has taken over the Internet world with a storm. Web-based applications are programs that run on Web servers and use Web pages as the user interface. [1] These applications can be accessed at the same time by multiple users. They use HTTP as its primary communications protocol and deliver web-based information in HTML. [2]

Examples of Web-based applications

* E-Mail
* Online Maps
* Online Banking
* Instant Messaging
* Online Reservation
* Online Document Services and many more …

These applications are most commonly used in the day-day life of many internet users.

Principle of Online Document Service

Online document Service is made possible to the end-user based on the principle of cloud computing. Cloud Computing is a computing paradigm in which tasks are assigned to a combination of connections, software and services accessed over a network. The combination of network connections, software and services is called the cloud. Users connect to the cloud as and when they require the resource i.e the application they require. This is made possible by a large-scale distributive computing and server virtualization software's. [3] [4]

Cloud computing can be visualized as a networked computer system that harnesses the resources of several servers to complete tasks and store data. The user has to run the cloud computing system’s interface software, which can be as simple as a web-browser. The responsibility of storage and processing data falls to the network cloud and not on the individual user. This decreases user’s hardware and software requirements. Hence in cloud computing, the network is referred to as the super-computer.

What is online document service?

Online document service (ODS) offers the user with the ability to store, read, write and share their word documents, spreadsheets and presentations online. These documents are available anywhere and anytime to the user where he/she can access Internet.

Online document services act as collaborative tools, much like the way Wiki's do. But it is important to understand that both of them deserve a separate categorization, beyond their both being services in convergence of communications. Some of the points of distinction are:

  • The main principle behind ODS is not authorship.
  • An ODS involves editing contents of a document as opposed to editing the contents of a website.
  • The primary purpose of an ODS is not to act as a knowledge repository or an encyclopaedia.
  • An ODS has moderated collaboration.

Advantages of Online Document Service

Online document service has the following advantages when compared to the already available off-line document service providers (products):

  • No software installation
  • Operating System independent
  • No ongoing or upfront expenses
  • No upgrading(software) hassles
  • No special hardware requirements
  • Concurrent editing
  • Ease of sharing
  • Ability to publish documents on the web

Online Document Service Providers

History

Oct, 2003 A small company in Cupertino, created ThinkFree, an office suite that is tightly linked with an online file storage service called CyberdrivePlus.

Jun, 2005 Adobe made its name on the Web by created a Web-based word processor application that called Buzzword.

Aug, 2005 Upstartle, a software company launched Writely, a web-based word processor.

Sep, 2005 AdventNet, a company focusing on building affordable software for businesses, launched Zoho.

Mar, 2006 Google announced that it had acquired Upstartle. [5]

Jun, 2006 Google launched Spreadsheets.

Feb, 2007 Google Docs was made available to Google Apps users.

Mar, 2008 Zoho announced that Zoho Writer supports both online and offline access from Internet Explorer Mobile (IE Mobile).

Features

  • Users can create, import and export documents.
  • Users can publish their work as a webpage.
  • Users can share and edit documents by inviting collaborators.
  • The web-application keeps a record of recent changes made to a document by collaborators.
  • The changes made to the document are visible in real-time.
  • Owner can exercise access control by assigning permissions to collaborators.

Comparison of Features [6] [7]

Features Zoho Google Docs ThinkFree Online Adobe Buzzword
Invite collaborators
 		Yes Yes Yes Yes
Storage Space
 		1GB of storage Unlimited Storage 1GB of storage Unlimited Storage
File Size
 		10MB 500K, plus up to 2MB per embedded image 4MB 10MB
Services Offered
 		Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentations Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentations Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentations Docs
Spell Check
 		Yes Yes Yes Yes
Fonts
 		19 11 134 7
Word Count
 		Yes Yes No Yes
Insert International Characters
 		Yes, only Roman alphabets Yes, only Roman alphabets Yes, Roman, Chinese, Japanese and Korean alphabets No
Development Platform
 		Ajax Ajax Java, Ajax Flash
Access documents on mobile devices
 		Yes No Yes No
Desktop Version
 		No No Yes Yes

Version control

Most of the times when you are editing a document, it goes through various revisions over a period of time. What if after numerous edits and saves, one day your mind reverts and you want to go back to the older version. Version control saves you the hassle of going back to square one and having to rewrite it all over again.

Version Control is an integral part of ODS. Changes to each document are usually identified by incrementing an associated number, called the revision number. [8] Either simply increment numbers for each edit (v1,v2,v3, etc.) or denote major/minor revision number ((v1_0, v1_1, v1_2, v1_3, v2_0, etc.) or include dates ((v2008-07-01, v2008-07-14, etc. )

There are various version control methods : SCCS( source code control system), RCS(revision control system), CVS(concurrent versions system) , SVN(subversion), Perforce etc.

Each ODS has its own version control method. For example, Perforce is the version control system in use at Google.

Limitations

Though online document service provides users with rich experience and advantages, there are certain limitations users come across

These services at the present offered for free. If the online document service providers begin to charge the users for a fee for the services provided, the user will have to bare the fee to continue using his/her documents.

Future Development

We anticipate several significant enhancements and feature additions to online document services.

  • Support for international characters such as Chinese, Japanese and so on.
  • Support for various mobile platforms.
  • Support for more document types, such as Visio.
  • Support for Speech recognition.
  • Support for sharing folders in addition to files.

Competition and Market

Off-line service providers are the principal competitors for online document service prvoiders.

Moreover, the latest US Consumer Awareness survey has found that three-fourth of the American population have never heard of online document services[9]. If the awareness increases, the popularity of these services are sure to make an impact on the use of off-line document services.

Comparing Google Docs and Microsoft Word

See also Google_docs_vs._MS_word

Reference

  1. ↑ Paul Graham "The Other Road Ahead"
  2. ↑ Definition "Business Dictionary.com"
  3. ↑ How Google Docs Works http://communication.howstuffworks.com/google-docs5.htm
  4. ↑ How Cloud Computing Works http://communication.howstuffworks.com/cloud-computing.htm
  5. ↑ Google Acquires Online Word Processing Company http://www.cooltechzone.com/News_Reports/Media/Google_Acquires_Online_Word_Processing_Company_200603112224/
  6. ↑ Reviews "Type and travel: Web-based word processors"
  7. ↑ Assistive Technology http://assistivetek.blogspot.com/2008/01/buzzword-has-been-updated.html
  8. ↑ Revision control http://wapedia.mobi/en/Version_control_system
  9. ↑ Free Web-based Office Suites http://stephenslighthouse.sirsidynix.com/archives/2007/12/
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